Celebrating Central Florida thriving business owners during Hispanic Heritage Month

Rey's Cuban Cafe in Casselberry owned by Cuban immigrants

CASSELBERRY, Fla. – Hispanic Heritage Month started Saturday celebrating the melting pot community of cultures from all over that also are bringing business and growth to the greater Orlando area.

Eduardo Pérez and his wife Yolanda are part of that community. They fled their native Cuba on a makeshift boat eight years ago. They first arrived in Cancun but were there for only five weeks, eventually making their way over to the United States.

"It was terrible, scary. We had no money. All I had was a dirty pair of shoes and ripped clothes," Pérez said about his arrival in an unfamiliar country.

But soon, Pérez started working two jobs -- cleaning pools and cooking. The jobs were new to him because in Cuba, he was a naval engineer, which was a profession chosen for him by the communist government. He even had to live in Russia for six years to get his engineering degree.

Once in the U.S, he enrolled in English classes to try to validate his degree, but he couldn't finish and the bills started to add up.

"It was either going to school or providing for my family, wife and children that I had to leave in Cuba," Pérez recalled.

However, his hardship eventually paid off. In 2015, the couple became the owners of Rey's Cuban Cafe in Casselberry. A dream made possible with help from the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit organization in Orlando.

"We have made a great impact in providing guidance to business owners but also connecting them with different resources available in our community," the organizations president Gaby Ortigoni said.

Pérez said, "They gave us the strength, knowledge, preparation and without a cent, we achieved good credit and have what we have today."

In 2017, the American Community Survey reported more than 423,000 Hispanics live in Orange County, more than 74,000 in Volusia and more than 98,000 in Seminole. Pérez employees 12 in Seminole County.

"I have a big heart and all this is for my family, you know?" one of those employees, Neptalí Guía, said.

Guía moved from Venezuela in February. There he was a publicist but left because of the ongoing economic crisis creating shortages of food, employment and medical care. The father of two works at Rey's Cuban Café and is known for the café con leche that he makes.

And like his boss, Guía wants to one day open his own restaurant with Venezuelan dishes.

"I think the people in the U.S. would like arepas, empanadas, pabellón and in December, hayacas," Guía said about some of the most popular dishes made in the South American country.

"Those people that come here, we not only open our doors to them for work but we take them in as family," Pérez said. "Everything is possible in this country."

Rey's Cuban Cafe is on South U.S Highway 17-92 and is open 7 days a week.


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